The local equities market closed the day higher, tracking gains in the US equities market brought on by recently released, robust manufacturing data. This served to confirm suspicions that previous months’ weakness was due to the unusually harsh winter.

Also, markets worldwide were relieved that sanctions imposed by the West on Russia and certain Ukrainian individuals would be of negligible economic impact, thus far. The PSEi surged forward, jumping 66.56 points, or +1.04%, to close at 6,466.55.

European shares ended mostly unchanged following a day of choppy trading as strong German trade data was offset by the ongoing geopolitical conflict in Ukraine. The FTSEurofirst300 index inched up 0.41 of a point to 1,321.39.

German exports jumped by a seasonally adjusted 2.2% last January, much higher than the market estimate of 1.4%, while imports leapt 4.1%, compared to the consensus forecast of a 1.3% gain.